August Wilson

August Wilson (27 April 1945-2 October 2005) was an American playwright who was known for The Pittsburgh Cycle, a series of stories set in his hometown of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Biography
Frederick August Kittel was born in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1945 to a Sudeten German immigrant father and an African-American mother, and he was raised in an economically depressed neighborhood of the city. He dropped out of high school after being accused of plagiarizing a paper about Napoleon I, and he worked at various menial jobs. Kittel was estranged from his mother after refusing to become a lawyer instead of a writer, but he later changed his surname to "Wilson" to honor his mother after her death. At the age of 20, he began writing poetry, and he co-founded the Black Horizon Theater in 1968. In 1978, he moved to Saint Paul, Minnesota, and he moved to Seattle, Washington in 1990. His ten most famous plays are The Pittsburgh Cycle, set in his hometown of Pittsburgh, which often deal with the struggles of African-Americans. He insisted that his movies be directed by fellow blacks to accurately capture the culture, but he died before any films could be made.